For the food challenge I selected to have a certain number of meatless or vegan meals for the week. I normally do not eat animal meat, but I do eat eggs sometimes. So I decided to have 7 vegan meals for this week- one for each day of the week. I realized it was a bit harder to plan things out as my normal diet includes some animal products. It also was a bit tricky to do this back home with my American family for the holidays, so I found that breakfast is when I was able to have the most control of my meals and decided to keep those vegan as they were the meals I would eat not with my whole family. Overall, I think it was great to challenge myself to move my diet to being even better for the planet and I think I will continue to enjoy meatless meals as well as adding in vegan meals when I am able to!  

In New York City, there are always some bits of litter to pick up even though there are bins and recycling bins on almost every corner. So, it was not hard to pick up bits here and there. I used gloves as I usually do when I pick up trash and got some weird looks from people, but I was able to talk to some people in my building who were curious about what I was doing with a “trash pincher” as one woman in my building called it. I think out of a covid world it would have been easier to engage with my neighbors, but lobby chats are not really happening right now and my building has a one household in the elevator time policy right now, but it was still nice I got to ask some of my neighbors to help me collect trash sometime in the New Year!

I selected to reduce my footprint for the  Ecological Principles challenge. I spoke with my mom in NYC about reducing our footprint. We spoke about kitchen roll and how reusable tea towels save money and waste. She agreed she would not buy a kitchen roll going forward, but instead use the reusable tea towels we have. We also decided that for clothing that is not really big and bulky we would use the clothes horse instead of the dryer to save electricity. Finally, when life goes back to normal and we are commuting more, my mom has decided to begin walking to work 3 days a week instead of taking the subway or a cab and I said I would do the same if I live in NYC when I graduate and will be able to walk to work. 

I think we focus to much on stuff. We now have more external storage then possible needed. I'm not a huge fan of stuff. Stuff requires resources. Resources in money and time. It takes money to purchase and time to maintain, move and throw away. There is not enough time to appreciate ALL the things we have. 

I haven't used transit as much as I would like as of late. Changed reporting location for work. This choice has me in a company truck most of the day. This self inflicted choice has really had a negative impact on my mental state. 

I work from home so don't drive very much anyway. But I walked to the grocery store and Walgreens this week instead of driving. Good exercise and did a little bit to reduce putting pollution in the air. 

Using only muscle-powered transportation was probably easier for me this week in quarantined life than "normal" life, so I feel like I can't take a lot of credit for it. I don't go very many places these days, especially with the restrictions in England. The only places I went this week were walking down to the seaside to walk alone the stones and poped over to my Aunt's garden for a cup of tea outside. I guess perhaps if I weren't doing this challenge we may have driven, but the weather was nice and it's not a far jaunt. I think when life goes "back to normal" it may be a bit difficult to only use muscle-powered transportation, but in NYC it will be probably easier before life goes back to "normal" as I don't see myself really using the subway in the near future in the city- I think I'll opt for a walk through the cold instead for a while. 

Using only muscle-powered transportation was probably easier for me this week in quarantined life than "normal" life, so I feel like I can't take a lot of credit for it. I don't go very many places these days, especially with the restrictions in England. The only places I went this week were walking down to the seaside to walk alone the stones and poped over to my Aunt's garden for a cup of tea outside. I guess perhaps if I weren't doing this challenge we may have driven, but the weather was nice and it's not a far jaunt. I think when life goes "back to normal" it may be a bit difficult to only use muscle-powered transportation, but in NYC it will be probably easier before life goes back to "normal" as I don't see myself really using the subway in the near future in the city- I think I'll opt for a walk through the cold instead for a while. 

This past week I tried to research other transportation options in my community. Unfortunately, I could not locate that many opportunities.   I did locate several bus lines within walking distance. And The metrolink is not too far off that. I feel like I could utilize those resources. I've always had a positive experience riding the metrolink, and it goes right to the university as well. 

This week, I learned about the Siegel Family Endowment.  This philanthropic foundation focuses broadly on  infrastructure.  "We support work that advances physical, technological infrastructure, and helps individuals and institutions develop resiliency in order to adapt to ongoing cultural and technological upheaval."  Transportation is one pillar of the foundation's work.  I have been reviewing their recent report, Rebuilding America:  The Road Ahead.  You can access a copy of the report at  https://infrastructure.siegelendowment.org/   One of the trends I am noticing about infrastructure is the broad approach many organizations are taking, adding digital infrastructure (broadband, digital fiber) to physical infrastructure (roads and bridges).  Do you think it's a good idea to group various types of infrastructure?  Ultimately, grouping transportation with digital infrastructure may increase federal funding, but I am concerned that the root problem may be overlooked by this broad approach.